The 2019 National Convention will be held in Hobart from Friday 29 March to Monday 1 April.

Venue

We are excited to be partnering with The Old Woolstore, a historic building in the heart of Hobart, to host the convention proceedings as well as our accommodation. The venue is full of character while also being accessible. It is centrally located, close to cafes, restaurants, shops, entertainment, and other accommodation options. And less than 20 minutes from the airport.

The Old Woolstore has a mixture of accommodation types which you can book at the following rates using the code “BCA”:

Hotel room – $170 per night

1 bed apartment – $205 per night

2 bed apartment (sleeps 4) – $270 per night

This means there are more options for those who wish to share accommodation or prepare their own meals while attending convention.

The Program

There will be workshops on the Friday afternoon, followed by more formal convention sessions on the Saturday and Sunday. We will also be arranging sightseeing options and additional workshops on the Monday for those who wish to stay a little longer.

Family Friendly Convention

We want to make conventions as inclusive as possible, which in this case means ensuring that partners and children have activity options available to them while Convention sessions are taking place.

This may include:

Having volunteers dedicated to supervise youngsters for different activities,

Providing a child care service

If you have any feedback about this, or further suggestions, please feel free to get in touch.

In 2018/19 Blind Citizens Australia will be conducting a series of teleconferences around becoming ‘life ready’ – practical discussions around supports and services that are available to you, or things you can do to prepare to live an independent life.

To enable us to gain a better understanding of what independence means to you as someone who is blind or vision impaired, we’d appreciate it if you could take the time to complete a short questionnaire.

BCA recognises that vision can change at any time or occur at any age and therefore we develop skills around becoming an independent person who is blind at different stages of life. Although some of these questions relate particularly to younger people we value feedback from all people, of any age.

If you would like to complete the questionnaire but do not wish to do so over the internet please call the BCA office on 1800 033 660 and a member of staff can complete it over the phone with you.

If you have any questions, please contact Sally Aurisch, NSW / ACT Project Coordinator on sally.aurisch@bca.org.au or on 1800 033 660.

Your responses to the questionnaire are confidential and will be used to support the development of content for upcoming teleconferences and workshops that relate to the Life Ready project.

]]>3915Vote Now for the BCA National Convention You Wanthttps://www.bca.org.au/vote-for-topics/
Mon, 12 Nov 2018 05:47:23 +0000https://www.bca.org.au/?p=3912We’re taking a new approach to planning for our 2019 convention. It’s all about making sure you have your say about what’s on the program.

Our Convention Reference Group has put together a list of topics and we want you to rate them. The topics with the highest ratings will be included in the program. You can only vote once and it won’t take long. We’re keen to hear from people who are blind or vision impaired, whether you’ve been to a convention or not and irrespective of whether or not you are a BCA member. So vote now and share with your networks. Voting closes at 8am on Monday 26 November.

“We, the participants at the World Blind Union – Asia Pacific (WBUAP) Mid-Term Regional General Assembly in UlaanBaatar, 12 September, 2018 adopt the following statement and refer it to relevant stakeholders for their consideration and action where appropriate:

1. We request governments to review or enact legislation which ensures that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities constitutes an effective tool for change in the lives of people who are blind or partially sighted; and we urge all WBUAP members to engage with monitoring and implementation processes to the maximum extent possible.

2. We call upon all governments throughout the WBU Asia Pacific region (Region) to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty as soon as practicable, so that persons who are blind or partially sighted or who have other print disabilities, have the fullest possible access to works of literature and to educational materials. We congratulate the five countries in the Region that have already ratified the Treaty.

3. We encourage national and international development organisations to work with governments to develop disability-inclusive policies and to implement programs to progress the action plans for the Sustainable Development Goals, the Incheon Strategy and the Beijing Declaration.

4. We encourage WBUAP members to co-operate with the United Nations Development Program to build capacity across the region so that persons who are blind or partially sighted are able to advocate for greater access to information.

5. We request all WBUAP members to give priority to policies that promote the empowerment of blind and partially sighted women by striving for their equality, safety and economic independence. In particular, members should focus on the themes identified by the 2018 WBU Asia Pacific Women’s Forum: education, employment, leadership opportunities, social participation, technology and the prevention of abuse and exploitation of women.

6. In acknowledging the very successful leadership training course held in December 2017 in Bangkok, under the generous sponsorship of the Danish International Development Agency (Danida), we encourage WBUAP members to actively provide leadership training and mentoring opportunities to facilitate the active participation of young people at the national and regional level. Furthermore, we request all members to pay attention to the needs, opinions and aspirations of young people, as well as nurture their leadership potential.

7. Noting that not all countries in the WBU Asia Pacific region were able to fully participate in this regional assembly, largely due to a lack of resources and/or infrastructure, we encourage WBUAP members to reach out to neighbouring countries to help them build their capacity to ensure improved services and peer support for their blind and partially sighted citizens. In this regard we express our appreciation to those organisations which have sponsored participants at this Assembly.

8. We call upon all governments, corporations and other global partners to take their share of responsibility and consult effectively to ensure that information and communications technologies are available, accessible and affordable to, and useable by, persons who are blind or partially sighted—as it is through such technology that real inclusion can be advanced and social isolation eliminated.

9. We endorse the generous offer of Hong Kong Blind Union to initiate and lead the implementation of a web accessibility campaign at the regional level, with active support from WBUAP members, to promote the adoption of internationally recognised accessibility standards in web design, apps, e-learning and other ICT products and services.

10. Noting the unacceptably high levels of unemployment and under-employment of persons who are blind or partially sighted in many countries, we call on all governments to implement or out-source programs that enable economic empowerment through the full participation in employment including: the promotion and resourcing of occupation-specific programs which promote the economic independence of blind and partially sighted people; awareness-raising programs for public and private employers and the community; transition to employment programs for school-leavers and newly-blinded persons; and the operation of specialist equipment and assistive technology schemes.

11. We support the proposal of the WBU Global Employment committee to request the WBU Officers to give much higher priority to employment issues including a major focus at the 2020 WBU General Assembly in Spain. In addition, noting the success of project Aspiro, we request WBUAP members to find ways to support Project Aspiro such as by providing employment-related information and case studies in their major languages for inclusion on the Project Aspiro website.

12. We call on the WBUAP members to share actively best practice initiatives and programs in areas including employment promotion and entrepreneurship, fundraising and capacity building.

13. We urge WBUAP members and networks to maintain strong communication with each other, using the WBUAP web site, The East Wind newsletter and other communication tools – ensuring that where practicable no person is left behind.

14. We congratulate the Mongolian National Federation of the Blind (MNFB) on the hosting of a very successful regional assembly; and we express our appreciation to the Mongolian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and to the members, staff and volunteers from MNFB whose collective efforts have made our stay in UlaanBaatar so productive and enjoyable.

The Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities has released the Issues Paper for the Third Review of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002 (Transport Standards). The Transport Standards were the first standards made under the DisabilityDiscrimination Act 1992 (DDA) and commenced in October 2002. The Transport Standards were made to enable public transport operators and providers to remove discrimination from public transport services by providing specific details about the standards they need to meet.

BCA is seeking feedback on the experience of public transport for people who are blind or vision impaired, particularly over the last 5 years since the previous review of the Transport Standards in 2012.

We are holding 3 teleconferences on the review of the Transport Standards:

Thursday 18 October 7pm – 8:30pm AEDT

Monday 22 October 11am – 12:30pm AEDT

Tuesday 23 October 7pm – 8:30pm AEDT

These teleconferences will be capped at 15 participants, so call us on 1800 033 660 to register your attendance. If these dates do not suit you or if you prefer, you can give feedback via email to bca@bca.org.au using the subject line “Transport Review Feedback” or call the office on 1800 033 660, or 03 9654 1400 to give your feedback by phone.

All feedback must be received by Friday 26th October 2018.

Please find below a briefing for BCA members that includes the relevant questions from the Government’s Issues Paper released in August 2018 as well as other materials relating to this topic.

]]>38602018 Annual General Meetinghttps://www.bca.org.au/2018-annual-general-meeting/
Mon, 01 Oct 2018 05:17:40 +0000https://www.bca.org.au/?p=3818Blind Citizens Australia will hold its 43rd Annual General Meeting in Melbourne, at the John Pierce Centre, 25-35 High Street, Prahran, on Saturday, 1 December 2018 at 11:00am. Those members unable to attend in person will be able to listen in to the proceedings via a live stream. The AGM will be followed by lunch and a discussion forum in the afternoon for those who can attend in person.

Since 1992, BCA has produced SoundAbout, an audio magazine containing interviews and information of interest to our members. For nearly thirty years, SoundAbout has provided local, state-specific and nationally significant information which has informed, entertained and challenged its listeners.

At this point in our organisation’s development though, we acknowledge that use of technology among people who are blind or vision impaired has become more widespread, and avenues for receiving information are increasing. So at its face-to-face meeting held in July, the board made the difficult but necessary decision to discontinue SoundAbout in its current form while we consider next steps.

Steve Richardson, who has been involved in the production and coordination of SoundAbout since the mid 90’s offers this reflection:

“SoundAbout was introduced in the 1990s as a way to share state-based information with members. Rather than being presented from the perspective of the national office, these audio newsletters were a presentation of various branches of BCA. The world wide web was only in its infancy, and communication over long distance was still sometimes unreliable and expensive. So members often relied on the very important information provided by local branches about their upcoming activities, advocacy, or state government changes that might affect blind and vision impaired people.

It was felt that a radio-style format magazine, featuring interviews with key people around the organization would be a more informal and friendly way to disseminate information to members. It was also a great training ground for those interested in developing interview and presentation skills, and learning the fine art of editing and producing a recorded program.

Members originally received their quarterly SoundAbout on cassette, and I remember one of the important announcements I had to make as the presenter of SoundAbout Queensland, was to remind listeners to make sure their cassette was fully rewound when finished with, and to turn over the address label before sending back. We actually had to produce two parts in those days, a “Side A” and a “Side B”, and these had to be well organised and precisely timed to around 43 minutes.”

On behalf of members, board and staff, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the dedicated team of members who have researched information, sourced and conducted interviews and edited the production to ensure that SoundAbout has been produced professionally and on time for nearly 30 years. In particular, I want to pay tribute to the creator of the SoundAbout concept, Stephen Jolley, and to acknowledge the contribution of Dale Simpson, who produced the magazine over many years. The production of an audio magazine is a time-consuming process, and requires a significant and ongoing commitment. We thank all those who have given up their time and energy to consistently provide us with relevant and helpful information.

We will now take the time to reflect on what our current communications channels offer, and where the gaps are, so we can ensure that the current information needs of people who are blind or vision impaired continue to be met. In the mean-time, a reminder that we continue to produce our weekly radio program and podcast, “New Horizons”, this publication, “Blind Citizens News”, our E-mail list, “BCA-L”, our website, and social media feeds.

We welcome your feedback on what you would like us to consider, whether it be a new communications channel, or content suggestions for our current offerings. So whether or not you are a BCA member, please get in touch and share your thoughts with us.

The National Policy Council (NPC) has, as usual, been busy. As I discussed in my last report, we have been working on a policy which outlines what we expect from the agencies which provide services to people who are blind or vision impaired. By the time you are reading this, we will have prepared a background paper and a series of consultation questions.

Our consultation will be national. It will be accessible to all members, using a variety of consultation methods. It addresses a series of specific focus areas, to be covered by the resulting policy. We will be seeking input into these areas from actual and potential users of the relevant services, rather than airing individual grievances, which can be more effectively dealt with through other avenues.

Our aim is to arrive at a consensus of the majority of members. The policy will be sensitive to the diversity of blind and vision impaired individuals and to the agencies which serve us. We will be consulting you over the next two months in as many forms as possible. Hopefully you will be bombarded by invitations to contribute, but if you are not, or if you prefer to be proactive, you can contact us via phone (the BCA office can give contact information for each NPC member). You can use the BCA text messaging service to contact us, and you can email your thoughts to npc@bca.org.au.

We will also be holding a series of teleconferences, invitations to which will be publicised soon. What we want from our blindness service agencies is a large, important and fascinating question and we want input from as many of you, our members, as possible.

Whilst designing this paper and process, we have also been considering the issue of Mobility Parking permits. We are currently drafting a position statement, which will form part of our Pedestrian Safety Policy Suite. This will reflect BCA’s current view that people who are blind or vision impaired should be automatically eligible for such permits, if they choose to apply for them. Where possible, we will work for this criterion to be consistent in all states, which unfortunately is not the case now.

Elections will soon be held for several positions on the NPC. We will be looking for representatives from Western Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. I would like to thank those who have fulfilled these roles over the past two years for their commitment to establishing the NPC as a working and meaningful part of BCA. Position descriptions are available on the BCA website. If you would like to discuss how the NPC works or anything related to BCA’s policy work, please get in touch with your State representative or a Board member.

We have recently been pleased to welcome Andrew Webster from the ACT. Other members include:

Myself, Helen Frerris and Lynne Davis, who represent the Board;

Steve Richardson, Queensland;

Jennifer Parry, New South Wales;

Martin Stewart, Victoria;

David Squirrel, South Australia;

Doug McGinn, Tasmania;

Greg Madson, Western Australia;

Julie Sutherland, who represents the National Women’s Branch.

We look forward to hearing and reading your opinions over the next few months.

It’s a pretty safe bet to say that my colleagues are getting a bit tired of my enthusiasm about the new phone system we’ve recently installed. I can’t blame them, but rest assured that my excitement is well founded.

If you’ve called the BCA office lately, you will have noticed the options the new system presents when your call is answered. The ability to provide these options is a great step forward for members, but I want to tell you about what it’s like to use the system as a staff member. Because it’s entirely accessible, it offers new possibilities not just for staff, but for all of us, even outside BCA.

The Smart UC computer and smartphone applications are a bit like Skype, but with the extra capabilities one would expect to find in any phone system used in an office. Calls can be transferred between staff no matter where they are throughout Australia, and there is capacity for group calls and text chat. Each staff member has a direct line and a voicemail facility.

Voice messages can be emailed to staff, so that they are very easily accessed and even saved if need be. I discovered recently what an advantage this is, when I received a call giving me some positive feedback. Recording of feedback from our members is crucial, so that we can report to funding bodies and other interested stakeholders. As it is in audio form, it can easily be sent to others, or even used in promotional materials. The variety of possibilities that this feature opens up is endless.

Traditionally, office phone systems have not been as accessible as they should be. Phones often have to be labelled or marked to make them more accessible for people who are blind or vision impaired. With the introduction of the computer application however, these steps are a thing of the past. It is of course possible to use a handset as part of the system, but not necessary.

The computer application works very well when using the Jaws or NVDA screenreaders. Calls can be answered easily, even if you are working on another task. Transferring between staff is easy, particularly once extension numbers are memorised. You can even call a staff member to see if they are available to take the call being transferred beforehand if you wish to, all from the convenience of your laptop.

As someone who has a hearing impairment in addition to being totally blind, I have found the integration of the phone into my laptop to be a real game changer. When the phone rings, I no longer have to take my headphones off, scramble madly for the handset, switch my hearing aids to telecoil mode and hopefully answer the call before it goes to message bank. I use a USB microphone which connects to my laptop and which has a headphone jack and volume control for monitoring. The speech from my screenreader and the phone come directly through my headphones. Using this system, I have more volume than I will ever need.

For the first time, I can seamlessly access my email or any other document while I have somebody on the phone, without having to juggle multiple sets of headphones, or multiple programs on my hearing aids in order to multi-task. Because everything is operated from the computer, everything is simultaneously accessible using the one device. If I have a braille display attached to the computer, I can even access information from the computer’s screen with braille while on the phone if I wish to.

My excitement about the advantages I have outlined goes beyond the fact that as an employee, it makes me more efficient personally. It seems that for the first time, we have created a system which finally puts us on an equal footing to our sighted peers who work in the fast paced environments that have often proven so challenging for people who are blind or vision impaired.

At least 58% of people who are blind or vision impaired are unemployed. Many of us do have the requisite skills to work in environments which have traditionally posed accessibility challenges. Many more will be able to acquire the necessary skills, once it is realised that the removal of accessibility barriers will drastically improve employment prospects.

For the first time, we have a system which will enable employers to witness the fact that if the barriers to accessibility are removed, we can be as productive and efficient as employees with sight. The challenge now is for this system to be marketed and promoted to employers.

The installation of a fully accessible phone system by the peak body representing people who are blind or vision impaired is therefore a monumental achievement, and one which could prove to be extremely important in promoting our value as people who are blind or vision impaired to employers in a variety of fields.

This achievement is the result of hundreds of hours of research, frustration, but above all, tenacity on the part of our CEO and our administration staff. The addition of the new phone system is one of a number of innovations which will make BCA a truly dynamic and flexible organisation. It has allowed staff to be located throughout Australia and easily contactable by members, a goal we have not been able to reach before.

While on the surface, the phone system is little more than a sensible advancement in BCA’s technology infrastructure, for people who are blind or vision impaired, it truly is proof that if products and services are designed with accessibility at the forefront of their development, equality can absolutely be achieved for all.

My sincere thanks and congratulations go to our CEO, Emma Bennison, for never giving up, and for making such a huge improvement to our workplace, and hopefully, the prospects of many others who are still seeking that elusive job.